John Chambers, Servant of Christ and Master of Hearts, and His Ministry in PhiladelphiaGriffis, William Elliot
Religion
John Chambers, Servant of Christ and Master of Hearts, and His Ministry in Philadelphia
Griffis, William Elliot
Chambers, John, 1797-1875
The most impressive scenes in the regular church services were those
of the last Sundays in March, June, September, and December, when the
memorial supper of the Lord, as instituted by Him, was enjoyed. This
celebration of Holy Communion was an intensely dramatic as well as a
moving scene. Indeed, sometimes, on the highly wrought imagination,
and under the melting appeals of the man who saw, felt, and lived the
truth, it was powerfully remindful of the ultimate division between
the sheep and the goats. All the lower part of the church was reserved
for and occupied by the communicants. In addition, as I remember
seeing more than once, the aisles were thronged even to the pulpit
stairs. Of the thirteen hundred and more members the overwhelming
majority was likely to be present at communion seasons. The gallery
was reserved and usually filled, yes, often packed, with the
"sinners", to whom, in the course of the services, with streaming eyes
and imploring hands, John Chambers would make intensely personal and
moving appeals, which, perhaps in hundreds of cases, wrought decision.
To this day "the galleries" in any edifice have to me a suggestion of
impenitence about them. Nevertheless how, and particularly why, as I
read, the king was "held captive in the galleries" (Song vii., 5), was
utterly beyond my boyish comprehension.
One of these seasons, which marked my own first participation in the
sacrament, I well remember, being but fourteen years old, the number
uniting at this time being about forty-four. We made two lines along
the pew fronts on either side of the aisle.
Another famous occasion was that of June, 1858, in the time of the
great revival which swept over the land, and especially Philadelphia.
Of seventy new members added, twenty-seven were baptized by the
pastor. Of the seventy, sixty-seven were received on first confession
of faith after examination and three by letter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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